G.M.O. argument

I haven't posted on this blog for over six months. I have found it harder to share lately, possibly burned out from so much writing the past couple of years. The urge to write came the other day. Upon reading a horrible letter to the editor in the Comox Valley Record on June 4th, praising Genetically Modified Organisms. Snap!! So here is the letter that made me freak out(click this link), and then you can read my rebuttal.

"I couldn't hold my tongue any longer. After reading Lorne Hepworth’s letter to the Editor in the June 4th edition of the Record I became angry! I am just a regular guy with no agenda, who happens to have a passion for healthy food and supporting the local economy. After breaking free of the industrial food system, I have lost 50 pounds, regained my health and quality of life. My eyes were opened to the atrocious agricultural model several years ago, and I can’t stand having a bio-tech lobby group stating such blatant lies in our local paper. I wish to encourage people, especially in an area where we are blessed with such diversity in our local food shed, to smarten up and to stop supporting the huge chemical companies who are essentially calling the shots in the food we consume.

I would like to clear up a few things for folks who may not understand what is going on. I am no scientist, but I do understand how the natural world works. G.M.O. foods are not food. They have been altered in a laboratory, at a genetic level, by people in white coats. Now if there were people in lab coats selling tomatoes at the farmers market, good chance they would not have a very successful business. These seeds are sold(marketed) to the farmers by the wonders of the seed being herbicide resistant and the ability be sprayed with Round-Up to kill ALL the weeds(which aren't actually weeds, but pioneer species trying to re-build damaged systems. Weed is such a negative term) so the product will have less competition. The chemical company also says the herbicide is inert once it hit’s the soil. I call a big BS on that claim! Then we eat the residues of the awful chemicals. And plants are so weak unless they are completely grown in mono-culture they will not produce. They need absolute human intervention. Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphate petro-chemical fertilizer(yes made from fossil fuels) are tilled into the soil. The soils are void of life from the tilling and poisoning. The claim by CropLife that not tilling is good for the soil is true, but spraying pesticides and herbicides in definitely NOT! Soil that is treated right is full of amazing life, minerals, and beneficial beings. Our soils are so depleted that the food we get from a mono-culture is essentially dead. Couple this killed earth with top soil loss from erosion and the catastrophic collapse of bee colonies, the food system as we know it is doomed.

Lobby groups and marketing firms work so hard at selling us this garbage food at great cost to our health and environment. CropLife claims that “Canadian save 60% percent on our grocery bill”. What is this compared to? We must take the true price of these savings into account. Depleting of the fossil waters across most of the agricultural areas of North America, leading to drought and massive crop loss. Heath care costs rising every year, due mostly to illnesses that are, in many circumstances, reversible with proper diet, including type 2 diabetes, chronic inflammation and obesity.  These create a whole new set of complications that could be fixed by a change in diet. There are thousands of stories out there of people who have reversed the diseases of agriculture on the internet. Do a little research in to the Weston A. Price Foundation, Robb Wolf and Dr William Davis. Society hasn't yet even began to see the long term heath repercussions associated with G.M.O. foods, as they have only been on the market since 1996. Not even 20 years of these “franken-foods” being on the market. Many older folks remember when doctors advertised cigarettes. Hmmmmm, do we see a pattern? What is going to happen as the reserves of fossil fuels are being used up? What will be used to fertilize the field, harvest it, transport the product to market? Major problem.

I am also very concerned with animals being fed G.M.O. feeds. Cows are un-naturally fed G.M.O. corn and soy in horrible conditions in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (C.A.F.O.), getting sick and fed anti-biotic. What is changing inside their bodies that are detrimental to our heath? The stress hormones course through the animals blood streams, passing on the consumer. Pork, and poultry are not any better of an option in the industrial model. Eating a completely vegetable diet, in my opinion, isn't with our its own set of issues, mostly because of the way vegetable proteins are grown. We MUST get animals back onto the pasture, locking in carbon, building soil and creating the safest, healthiest and sustainable food possible.

We are sick, scared and un-happy in life. This is the way the mega-corps want us. Sick and scared people are trainable, and un-happy people spend money. A return to a more natural and sustainable system for all would be the way to go. It is has to happen, or man-kind will fail. It is just common sense. Think about it!  We are running out of resources. Mother Nature didn't need all these false inputs for the past few million years, why do we? Take charge of you own life, don’t listen to the advertisements. Only YOU can fix this,  and if enough of us fix ourselves then the awful situation will change. Please don’t wait for the government to change anything. That is an exercise in futility. Buy organic, buy local, and get to know your farmer. And say NO to G.M.O.!"

Any comments. Did I make a point and this organization can take a hike. I would like to see some comments on my letter. Thanks for reading.